Although large numbers of Greeks live in parts of Ukraine and southern Russia, such as [[Mariupol]] and [[Stavropol Krai]], the term Caucasus Greeks strictly speaking should be confined to those Greeks who had settled in the former [[Russian Caucasus]] province of Kars Oblast and the region of Georgia called [[Tsalka]]. Large numbers of Pontic Greeks from Ottoman north-eastern Anatolia and especially the [[Gümüşhane]] (Greek [[Argyroupoli, Rethymno|Argyroupolis]]) region of the [[Pontic Alps]] had gone to Tsalka in 1763 on being invited by [[King Heraclius II]] of Georgia to develop silver and lead mining at Akhtala and Alaverdi (in present-day Armenia). Many of their descendants survive in Georgia’s [[Marneuli]] district, although most immigrated to Greece, and particularly [[Thessaloniki]] ([[Salonika]]) in [[Greek Macedonia]] in the mid-1990s. However, the largest number of Caucasus Greeks from north-eastern Anatolian who settled in Georgia are those who fled Ottoman reprisals following the Greek War of Independence and the 1828-29 [[Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829)|]], in which many north-eastern Anatolia Greeks fought in or collaborated with the Russian Army that occupied [[Erzurum]], Gümüşhane, [[Erzinjan]], and [[Kars]] (all now in north-eastern Turkey).ref Many of these Caucasus Greeks from Georgia are often referred to as , and speak a Turkish dialect with a large admixture of Pontic Greek, Georgian, and Armenian vocabulary.ref The vast majority of these Pontic Greeks who settled in southern Russia and Georgia in the modern/late Ottoman era are the descendents of th Greeks who left the Pontic Alps and the northeast Anatolian highland region after 1828-29. According to conservative estimates these made up around 20% of the entire Greek population of the area prior to the 1828 Russian occupation, after which they were resettled by the Russian Imperial government in the Ukraine and other parts of southern Russia, as well as Georgia and (after 1878) Kars Oblast.
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== The Caucasus Greeks in contemporary Greek Macedonia ==
During [[World War I]] most able-bodied Caucasus Greek men again fought for Russia against the Ottoman Empire, usually serving in the [[Russian Caucasus Army (World War I)|]], which was led by a coterie of senior Russian, Georgian, and Armenian officers. Most of the Caucasus Greeks of Kars subsequently left for Greece in 1919, before the province was officially re-incorporated into the territory of the new [[Turkish Republic]] and the large-scale Greek-Turkish population exchange of 1922-23. Most were resettled in [[Kilkis]] province and other parts of central and eastern [[Greek Macedonia]], particularly in villages of the mountainous [[Drama prefecture]] that until 1922 had been inhabited largely by "Turks" (in this case Ottoman Muslims of mainly Bulgarian and Greek Macedonian convert origin). During the German occupation of Greece (1940–44) and [[Greek Civil War]] of 1943-49 most Caucasus Greek men fought for [[...|ELAS]], the military wing of , the leading Greek communist guerilla organisation that fought against the German occupation.ref Many in Greece argue that the strong communist affiliations of Greek Macedonia's Pontic Greeks and Caucasus Greeks, most of whom even today continue to support the Greek Communist Party [[KKE]], has never had anything to do with ideology but was actually due to residual pro-Russian sentiment and traditional family expectations.
